Wednesday, 19 March 2014

Album review: PIXIES - EP2

Frank Black is understandably full of caution. His
songwriting, is it good enough? Are critics happy? Are fans receptive? (Short
answer to most of those questions: no.) You sympathise. With a discography so
perfect, releasing a bad album would be horribly bad taste. In fact, considering
the lukewarm reaction, you have to wonder if releasing any new Pixies album would be a good idea.

The general consensus is that EP2 is slightly better
than EP1, but I just don’t hear it. To get into the maths of it, the first one
had three good songs out of four, the second one has only two. Besides, if you
look at this stuff from a certain angle, you will see that the identity is
getting slowly but steadily dissolved into a million other bands you may or may
not care about.

The lead-off “Blue Eyed Hexe” is downright embarrassing. It makes “What Goes Boom”
sound like a good song. AC/DC-like macho music that I don’t need from anyone,
never mind Pixies. The hooks are there, but they are dull, generic and make me
wonder what am I doing listening to this shit. Thankfully, “Magdalena” is
brilliant. Classic Pixies, Bossanova-worthy
– just slightly more polished. File alongside “Ana” and “Velouria”, not a bad
place to be. “Green and Blue” is very sweet. Close to mainstream, but the edge
is definitely there. Finally, “Snakes”. It’s okay. The opening guitar line is
good and some sections work. The chorus, however, is way too straight-faced for
a band that used to be so good at finding unconventional chord structures.

To be completely honest here, I don’t see a great
Pixies album coming out of this. I hear some good music, but so far nothing to throw
away Kim Deal about. Thus, a slightly disappointed six.